We've had some questions regarding the current status of the club, so here's our answers.
1. Why are H90J asking for membership subs when the club isn't on?
We'd rather not ask for your subs, but if we don't do your memberships before the end of August, you all lose your England Athletics registration. We've left it as late as we could, and have heavily discounted this year's subs, but we assume members want to retain their EA status, so they can enter races in future.
2. Doesn't EA guidance say we can have unlimited people training together now?
Not quite. EA Guidance says we can have unlimited people "in a COVID-secure environment". Maintaining a COVID secure environment that satisfies the EA guidelines requires an enormous amount of admin and organisation, including risk-assessment, tracking attendance, social distancing, health questionnaires and so forth. The current levels required are too much to ask of the volunteers who help keep the club going (run leaders, committee, coaches, etc). In a non-COVID secure environment, the maximum we can have running is only 6 members per group, which would require about 12-15 well-separated groups of runners and run leaders, assuming an average Tuesday night...
3. Aren't other clubs running?
Other clubs have much lower turnouts than H90J, and some (but not many!) are doing some very limited running, in small groups. While we could arrange some small groups of runners, this would exclude the vast majority of members. Most of our members are self-organising regular runs in groups of their own making and using our social channels. We don't currently feel that what we could offer as a club is superior to that at this stage.
4. Why can't we all meet up outside the room, instead of in it? Won't that help?
If we don't hire the room, we have no access to the school. We would need to meet at an alternative outdoor location that is open, allows parking and where we can congregate. Most parks close in the evenings (so no car parking...) and we'd still be limited to groups of 6.
5. I don't have anyone to run with!
Please post in the Facebook group or contact a member of the committee if you don't have anyone to run with. We can try to help you find a group if you are particularly isolated.
6. I want to help!
If anyone does have the time and is willing to take on the COVID officer role, organising a COVID-secure environment, or you want to arrange run groups or anything similar, please contact the committee.
We hope this helps expand on some of the complexities we currently face.
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